A lifetime of gaming: from ZX81 to Xbox – Reader’s Feature

A reader looks back at more than 30 years of video gaming, and why he’s just as excited by the new consoles as he was the Spectrum.

I have been a long time gamer, I am approaching my fortieth year. Manic Miner was the first game I completed. A self-programmed Defender game on the ZX81 was the first game I played. I’ve read with interest everything regarding the new generation of consoles recently on GameCentral. I have had most consoles from the SNES generation onwards (thankfully my first console was not a Amstrad GX, I opted for a CPC464 instead – or my parents did).

I have had a tendency to chop and change as most generations seem to have a console with a sweet spot at a particular time. The SNES is still perhaps the best and most played console I ever had, university meant time for Super Mario Kart championships and Street Fighter II drinking games. The Mega Drive wasn’t a patch on the SNES, so after a swap, I swapped back. This inevitably lead to a Nintendo 64, swapped for a Dreamcast and then a PS one which was awesome. It was fresh, it had arcade games, new platformers and so on.

In fact the Dreamcast was awesome too, but it wasn’t selling and I cut my losses before its quick demise. The PlayStation 2 ensured my love of driving games was met in the next generation, though the GameCube’s 1080° Snowboarding and Wave Race 64 were awesome. Sadly the ‘Cube’s Mario games are perhaps the worst and I always found this disappointing.

Through all of that generation I hung onto the GameCube and PlayStation 2. I had two Game Boy Advances – still one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had was Zelda: Four Swords with that and the ‘Cube. Why that can’t be done with 3DS and Wii U now I don’t know. An Xbox didn’t figure, but mainly because I’ve used Apple products for a very long time and I wasn’t about to buy into Microsoft then!

I did have a Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and Wii at the same time. The Wii didn’t get used much. Neither did the Xbox 360 after the first couple of years of its life. The PlayStation 3 in my view, and in its later life, has been the best of the generation. Due to this and the new generation having a very thin if non-existent vein in terms of offerings, I bought a couple of PlayStation 3 games and a Wii U.

Super Mario 3D World (and the fact Super Mario World had been released on the Virtual Console) meant it was a much needed purchase. I love it, it’s a great machine. The problems are clear, lack of third party software, lack of regular and stellar releases, lack of FIFA for the masses. The strategy for Nintendo is simple really, a more powerful console with a better architecture to allow easy ports of current games.

Creating second party developers is a great idea and they really need to develop new and re-develop old franchises. The Virtual Console is great, but come on, launch the top 25 titles from Nintendo in HD. I’d put everything I could on the Virtual Console now if I were Nintendo, think iPlayer rather than some drip feed system which just creates confusion and annoyance. As many titles as possible should be playable between the 3DS and Wii U.

They also need to perhaps develop a cloud, rather than the ridiculous purchase linked to console. Don’t think iTunes would have done so well if that were their model! Talking of the 3DS, one thing I have missed, my wife bought me a 3DS last year. This or the SNES for best console, it’s a hard fought thing. If they can have that level of creativity, surely they can develop the next generation Nintendo to really be something very special.

By reader team_catcave (PSN ID)

The reader’s feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. As always, email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk